Nostalgia is a tricky business, particularly put into the hands of people who don’t really know how to handle the nuance of it.
ABC’s new drama Charlie’s Angels seem to want to go back to the ’70s to rustle up some girl power, but it fails miserably and offensively.
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The series is a remake of the jiggle show that seems to be remade so many times it’s like Equus. After the movie franchise, what can possibly be said about “angels” who save people in distress and kick ass in the process?
Well, this much can be said about the new television version: It’s beyond heinous. It contains some of the worst acting of the last decade on network television, much of it by Minka Kelly.
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The writing is atrocious. It’s like a spoof that suddenly took itself seriously. That ABC could have made this on the drama side and the yet-to-air “Work It” on the comedy side – far and away the two worst shows of this new season – says a lot about what it takes to get fired in this town.
Listen, to go on any more about Charlie’s Angels – even to the point of talking about who’s in it or who wrote it (why embarrass them any more than necessary?) gives the show more validation than it deserves. Don’t watch this show thinking it’s so awful it could be brilliant. Or that you could make a fantastic drinking game out of it.
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No, there are series that will fill those needs. Charlie’s Angels is offensive to every actor and writer currently out of work. It makes Jersey Shore look like Shakespeare. And it sets the standards of television back to, well, the lesser efforts of the 1970s. And that’s nostalgia nobody needs to relive.
Email: Tim.Goodman@THR.com
Twitter: @bastardmachine
